


A Healing Reunion

by julesbby



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:14:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29828238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julesbby/pseuds/julesbby
Summary: Lontra (original Shifter character, D&D 5e) has to nurse tiefling lover Cairo (original tiefling character, D&D 5e) back to health after his time in captivity with the Cult of the Dragon.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Dungeons & Dragons Character(s) & Original Dungeons & Dragons Character(s), Original Tiefling Character(s)/Original Tiefling Character(s)





	A Healing Reunion

The room was bathed in momentary darkness as Lontra closed the door behind her. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the dawn sunlight trickling in through the west-facing windows. The blue-violet of night still rode the western horizon, the last twinkling of stars flickering out one by one. The too-thin shadow of the tiefling she’d grown strangely attached to stood out against the predawn light. His horns curved gracefully up and back from his head, silvery hair falling down between his eyes. He looked as though he could collapse at any moment, swaying slightly on his feet. Lontra realized then that he probably hadn’t eaten in days, and almost certainly hadn’t been given nearly enough water.

She knelt to dig in her pack, producing some rations of bread and cheese, and some dried meat she’d made herself. She hoped the spices wouldn’t be too strong for him, but offered it all anyway, setting it out on the small side table near the window. He began to gratefully wolf it down, and Lontra poured a small amount of wine into one of the cups on the table before topping the rest of it with water. She pushed the glass toward him. “Drink, it will rejuvenate your spirits.”

Cairo didn’t speak as he mechanically shoveled food into his mouth, pausing periodically for sips of the watered down wine. Lontra busied herself pulling healing salves and bandages out of her pack. She lit the fireplace in the room, and hung the cast iron kettle over the hearth. Lontra winced as she stood and her knee cracked loudly. She rolled her head around, stretching her neck in various angles. She had her own aches and pains, but those could wait. Flesh wounds.

She did, however, take the time to strip out of her gore-covered cultist robes. She folded them neatly in a pile behind the door. Her sleek brown fur was mussed and stuck up slightly in places where the blood and ichor had penetrated her leather clothing. Clad in only her underthings, Lontra used a small towel dipped in the basin of water left for her, and began rubbing it over the dirty patches of fir. It was deep brown, softer and less dense than a true otter’s. She had propped a foot up on a chair and was rubbing the cloth down one sleek leg, when she felt Cairo’s eyes on her.

The sun had risen enough that she could see their golden gleam as he watched her clean herself, and though she’d been naked in his presence before, she felt more bare now than she had then. She was glad for the fur that obscured the blood that rushed to her cheeks. Lontra paused as she stood straight and met his gaze.

And then he asked the one thing she hadn’t been expecting.

“Who was that sorcerer fellow you were so...familiar with?”

Lontra’s sharp brows furrowed together in a scowl, though her gaze fell to the floor. What business was it of his? She didn’t demand to know if he’d slept with everyone who would even glance his way within the Nox syndicate, and she was certain there were at least a few. But that’s not what he’s asking, the small, reasonable part of her whispered. Her amber eyes flicked back up to meet his and her face smoothed slightly.

“His name is Leosin Erlanthar, and he’s been an erstwhile companion when we have worked together in the past.” Her chin rose defiantly, daring him to make some sort of shameful comment. 

But he simply faced her pride with a nod, though Lontra swore she saw a spark of hurt behind his eyes. She laid the cloth over the edge of the basin before crossing the plush rug that lay over the hardwood floors and kneeling by his chair. She had to look up at him from this position, one of vulnerability, and her heart thudded in her chest. “Nothing happened, Cairo. I was looking for you, and had already lost hope we would even find you in that horrible place.” Her bright eyes were wide and honest, giving her the look somewhat of a cat staring up at you. He smiled gently, running a hand over her head. His nimble fingers released the pins she used to keep her dark hair in its tight bun at the nape of her head, and the raven-wing tresses spilled down to her hips. Lontra recognized a hunger in Cairo that had nothing to do with food, but she stood abruptly and took his hand.

“Later, silly boy. Let’s get your wounds looked at first.” Just from here, with him fully clothed, Lontra could see a heavily swollen black eye and a split lip, as well as a slight gouge in one of his ear tips, as though he’d been hit in the head with something. Lontra, fully used to tending her own wounds as well as those of her mentor, clucked and cooed over him as she led him toward the large bed next to the fireplace. “Strip down, Morningstar. I need to make sure you’re good and healthy before I have you again.”

He barked a sharp laugh, but began complying with her order. Lontra dumped the water from the basin out the window before filling it again with the warm, but not hot, water from the kettle over the hearth. She grabbed a clean cloth from the cabinet beneath the basin and pitcher, before turning back to Cairo...who had stripped completely naked in record time. Lontra smirked, propping one fist up on her hip while balancing the basin on the other. “Is that a flute in your pocket or are you just excited to see me? Simmer down, infernal annoyance, and sit down so I can baby you as befits such a delicate sensibility.” She pointed one finger downward as she said the word, indicating for him to sit on the edge of the bed.

He obliged her, a wicked glint in his golden eyes. Lontra’s own expression matched his, the corner of her full mouth quirked up in the corner. She placed the bowl next to him on the bed, where it nestled deep into the downy comforter, quite stable. Placing her slim hands on his knees, she spread them apart and moved to stand directly between them.

Her hands were nimble and well-practiced, wiping the blood from his face where it had dried almost black. The water was warm and felt nice against her hands, which she hadn’t realized were so cold until they were met with the contrast of Cairo’s hot skin. Neither of them spoke, though his eyes watched her and one hand reached out to play with the feathered earrings she wore, to stroke the curve of her ear, to play with a strand of black hair.

Her thumb deftly smeared small amounts of the jelly-like salve over the open wounds. She bit her lip a little, seeing the tear in Cairo’s ear. There wasn’t much she could do for it, but she smeared a little salve on that too. From his face, her hands moved to a hot place where there was a torn muscle in his neck. She rubbed the ointment on and kept going. Her slim hands were skillful, her fingers a little shorter and more paw-like than those of her companions. But they were no less deft.

Cairo’s body was bedecked with bruises like a checkerboard, his red skin splotched with ugly black and purple. Lontra muttered “you just couldn’t keep that pretty mouth shut, could you?” She saw him flinch away from her hand as she began to dab at a particularly nasty gash on his ribs. “Sorry, love, sorry. Shhh…” She quieted him before realizing that she’d used the word ‘love.’ Lontra kicked herself mentally for the misstep, but didn’t bring it up again. No need to make things complicated with words like love. She could feel the heat of his gaze on the top of her head, and was not unaware of the stirrings between his legs, but Lontra stubbornly focused on the task at hand.

When she had doctored him from the waist up, she stood straight. They were of a height with him seated on the bed before her, and Lontra dropped the bloodied cloth into the basin. Her arms twined around his neck, and the heat of his chest took her breath away as she leaned in to place one soft, almost hesitant kiss on his mouth. His arms wrapped around her waist, and Lontra could feel him begin to lean backward onto the bed, pulling her with him. She withdrew, holding her posture firm with a wicked, teasing gleam in her eye.

“I think not, sir, you’ve got cuts, bruises, and blisters from the hips down for me to see to.” Her lilting accent made it sound seductive, despite her intention being the opposite. She pulled away from his grasp, laughing as his lower lip stuck out.

“How am I supposed to concentrate on getting better when only half my blood is in my brain?”

She patted him lightly on the cheek before stepping back and picking up the basin and the small tub of ointment. “That is a problem we will have to solve later, my darling. Now, lie down on your stomach if you please.” Her bronze eyes glinted. “I can’t have you causing more distractions. And I think your tail may be broken.”

It wasn’t, only slightly dislocated just at the base of the spine. Lontra told him as much, stroking her fingers gently, repetitively, down his low back and over the top of his ass where her claws raked every so lightly. She could feel him shiver deliciously beneath her hands, and Lontra’s fur stood on end. “I’m going to have to set this back in place or it will hurt you forever, my darling. You may want to bite down on something.”

“I’ve heard that one before.” He muttered, grabbing a pillow from the head of the bed. 

Lontra laughed before grasping his tail with her dominant hand, planting the other on the small of his back, and jerking it hard. A loud pop, and sharp gasp and a ripping sound, and the sideways kink in the tail was now just some residual swelling. Lontra’s strong hands worked at the knots in Cairo’s back as she sang to him softly, to assuage the anguish she’d undoubtedly just put him through. Little by little, she felt the tension in him relax, felt him go limp beneath her hands. And then...a very, very small snore. Lontra struggled not to laugh. She could feel the exhaustion in her own muscles. She’d fought like hell to get him back, even though she’d lost hope that she would even find him in that camp.

Lontra had known that she would find Cairo, or find out what happened to him, if it meant slaughtering every godsdamned cultist on the continent. She’d take on a hundred half dragons alone to get him back. Lontra carefully climbed out of bed to put the basin back on its stand. She pulled the curtains closed as silently as she could. Her bones suddenly felt heavy as lead with a relief of the tension she hadn’t known she’d been carrying. The shifter clambered back onto the bed, and curled up facing away from Cairo, toward the door. She hadn’t even known he realized she was back, until his warm arms encircled her and his body pressed into her back. Lontra was still smiling as she fell asleep...


End file.
